Annotations, South Texas College of Law (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 19, No. 4, Ed. 1, September, 1990 Page: 1 of 8
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Unanimous faculty vote bars lLs from advocacy participation
By Raymond Daniel
With two days to go before
the start of the fall semester,
the faculty voted 50-0 to
prohibit students with fewer
than 30 hours from
participating in any Board of
Advocates competitions.
This decision was made at
the faculty retreat.
In a memo about the
retreat, Dean Bill Wilks
wrote that faculty members
were concerned that "many
first-year students were
participating in the
administration of advocacy
and mock trial programs to
the extent that they were
missing classes and not
concentrating on their
courses." The faculty voted
unanimously to amend the
Academic Regulations so
that no first year student
(defined as any student who
has not yet completed 30
hours of credit) is allowed to
participate in any advocacy
program except as required
in Legal Research & Writing
II or as required in the
appellate advocacy course for
which some students are
eligible.
As now structured, Legal
II provides oral and
appellate advocacy training.
The faculty felt that this left
students with at least two
full years to participate in
the advocacy program.
The faculty also:
•held a full discussion on
whether South Texas should
continue to admit students in
the summer,
Annotations t
m VOL. XIX NO. 4 SEPTEMBER 1990 ))
Changes alter BOA competitions
When the W. Clark
Chamberlain Client
Counseling Competition is
held September 10-13, it will
be missing something that it
has had in the past.
First-year students.
The unanimous vote of the
faculty will prevent students
with fewer than 30 hours
from participating in any
Board of Advocates
competitions. The ban not
only includes participation as
a competitor, but as a client,
witness or timekeeper.
Other changes have been
imposed by the BOA to
make the intramural
competitions more similar to
the ABA competitions.
In the client counseling
competition, three teams will
participate within a given
one hour round using the
same client and the same set
of judges. One team will be
given a score of "5" and the
other two teams will be
given lower scores. The top
27 teams will advance to the
quarter-finals, the top nine
will advance to the semi-
finals and the top three will
advance to the finals.
The mock trial competition
has been changed as well.
Formerly, two-member teams
participated, using whatever
witnesses they could find.
The teams will now consist
of four members, who may
switch roles throughout the
competition. Two members
may be the lawyers while the
other two serve as witnesses
throughout the three
preliminary rounds.
However, two participants
could serve as lawyers in the
first round while the other
two serve as lawyers in the
second round. In the third
round one lawyer from each
of the first two rounds could
' then be paired or one of the
first two teams could
participate again.
In past competitions there
were two rounds. Now there
are three.
The Dunn, Kacal, Adams,
Pappas and Law Mock Trial
will be held October 3-10.
It will be followed by the
Leroy Jeffers Moot Court
Competion November 1-8.
The BOA has eliminated
manda ory meetings.
Instead, they will try to have
speakers at meetings. Joe
Jamail is scheduled to speak
in late September. Any
questions regarding
competitions, meetings or
membership should be
directed to the BOA, Room
316.
Team takes best brief award
STCL wins National Moot Court title
South Texas won the
ABA's National Moot Court
Championship and the best
brief award at the ABA
convention August 5-6 in
Chicago.
Teams from 154 law
schools competed in the
initial regional tournaments.
The 28 regional winners
advanced to the three day
national finals.
South Texas team consisted
of Chris Brown, Rick Morris,
Sharon McCally and Deanna
Smith.
By defeating Creighton
University of Omaha,
Another «inner A happy Dean Treece celebrates another N^r^ka In the Stoulh
championship with (bom left to right, hack row) Dale Jefferson 3°"* w°n
andChris Brown, (front row) Lew Hovnatanian (assistant m ,he pX>l e,gh'
coach), Rick Morris, Deanna Smith and Sharon McCally. years'
•announced that a jurist-
in-residence program has
been established, with the
first visitor on campus in
November,
•agreed that the
Curriculum Committee
would identify various
practice areas and develop a
guidance program for
practice in those areas,
•reached a consensus to
consider terminating the
current system of operating
two concurrent summer
sessions and to operate only
one summer session of ten
weeks or less,
•approved a capital
punishment clinic,
•referred a proposal to
establish a mediation clinic
in conjunction with the AA
White Institute and a
medically indigent clinic to
the appropriate committee
for action at the next faculty
meeting,
•approved a disciplinary
action recommended by a
special hearing panel.
SBA hopes to improve
communications between
students, administration
Improving communications
between the student body
and the administration
emerged as the Student Bar
Association's top priority
during its retreat August 26
at the Westin Gallería.
Various SBA members
expressed views that
decisions which affect
students are often made
without any student input.
Though the decision by the
faculty to prohibit
participation in Board of
Advocates to any student
with fewer than 30 hours was
cited as the most recent
example, students were able
to name many examples.
The decisions to prohibit
students from taking both
Criminal Trial Advocacy and
Civil Litigation and Trial
Practice, to reduce certain
classes from four to three
hours, to remove Texas
criminal procedure from
Criminal Procedure and to
require that students take
Federal Income Tax before
completing 60 hours were
cited as other administration
decisions that were made
without student input.
To help remedy this in the
future, the SBA will require
student representatives to
faculty committees to report
to the SBA
SBA members were
concerned about the faculty
imposed restriction of first
year participation in BOA
competitions. SBA President
Moses Mercado explained
that some faculty members
were concerned that students
were missing classes so that
they could participate in
BOA competitions. Still,
SBA members thought the
prohibition too harsh and
suggested modifying the
newly imposed restrictions.
Some members suggested
modifying the rule so
students who had completed
two semesters or 15 hours
could participate. Others
suggested that modifications
should be made to allow
first-year students to serve as
witnesses and timekeepers.
Though there remains a
great deal of concern that
the prohibition is too
restrictive, some compromise
was made. After discussing
the SBA's concerns with this
policy the next day with
Dean Bill Wilks, one
exemption was made.
Students who are near 30
hours and who have a good
GPA may submit a letter to
Assistant Dean T. Gerald
Treece, Director of
Advocacy, requesting that
they be allowed to
participate in a certain
competition. Dean Wilks
has the final decision as to
which of these exemption
requests are granted.
Developing a publication
that focuses on professor
expectations from students
was another suggestion made
to help improve
communications. This
booklet will emphasize
recitation mode and daily
preparation rather than
personality.
Remodeling the student
lounge and looking into
allowing one of the bar
review companies to hold its
bar review on campus were
mentioned as other goals
that the SBA hopes to
accomplish this year.
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Daniel, Raymond. Annotations, South Texas College of Law (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 19, No. 4, Ed. 1, September, 1990, newspaper, September 1990; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth144470/m1/1/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting South Texas College of Law.